Measurement and analysis of braille stimulus to brain using an EEG: A preliminary study

Braille systems currently available for blind and visually impaired (BVI) individuals are inadequate. Braille books and refreshable displays are large and hard to use during travel. For BVI individuals to truly have access to written materials wherever they are, a portable, adaptable, and user friendly device is needed. One way to achieve this is the use of an electronic stimulation to the fingertip rather than stimulation by mechanical pins actuated by complicate electromechanical mechanism. As the first step, this paper discusses preliminary investigations and findings of the brain signals observed during mechanical Braille stimulation in order to later correlate them with the brain signals observed during electronic Braille stimulation. The next step is to design a portable and adaptable electronic Braille device. The device will use brain signals induced by mechanical Braille stimulation as the control reference for achieving correlated and adaptable electronic Braille stimulation for users.